April 2013

04/06/2013

We had the BEST meal and the BEST service at this Friday Harbor restaurant! Duckworth coffee to start - absolutely nectar of the Gods. Wine made in the Islands, swoon. I wish I had taken a picture of my beautiful salad! Chiogga Beets - roasted. Crisp apple cut precisely like matchsticks. Pacific Northwest Blue Cheese (tiny nuggets). Candied pecans, sigh. On a bed of the most delicate fresh mixture of greens ~ have no idea how many or what. Light oil and vinegarette dressing. There was not. one. bite. left. to take to my room. I'd make the jaunt to Friday Harbor JUST to eat at this spot again.

04/05/2013

What a fabulous week! Started out by jetting (well, in my ol' truck actually) off to Anacortes and catch the ferry to Friday Harbor. Beautiful trip - lots of fog on the way intermittently mixed with spots of sunshine here and there. We stayed at the most delightful spot - the EarthBox Inn and Spa, a most lovely room complete with a kitchenette, table and chairs. After a wonderful foray through the heavenly King Market, settled in for the evening, which in part consisted of my getting the whole spiel of WHY I need to have an I-Pad. Lots of laughing and telling stories, accompanied by sporadic cackling and shrieking - I believe we kept the next-door honeymoon couple (cute as the dickens) up til the wee hours.

Orange bikes at EarthBox Inn

Orange bikes in black and white - the fog moisture made the wheel spokes look as if they had diamonds attached!

In the early morning sunshine, a wondrously shiny row of hotel-provided guest bikes - purple and orange - was really gorgeous. I didn't have a helmet or elbow pads or I would have happily given one of them a go. What a grand idea for an inn in a small town. The landscaping was beautifully done, and in the dusk-y evening, a curving row of jasmine trees smelled delicious. The weather was SPECTACULAR! Cool, clear, sunny. A really good wander around town - had to check out Donna Reed's gourd baskets at the Island gallery, fondle yarn and such at Island Wool, a razzle-dazzle go at Dream Beads (maybe not the correct name) and a art-y swoop through Vital Elements, close to, if not where I remembered, a shop I think was called Gorouda? sounded like Gouda (as in cheese). A few purchases at a "previously loved" store and a Cotton Cotton shop with must-haves.

Walked down to ferry dock looking for "eats" and was really enchanted with the design of this siding.

We caught the ferry to carry on our rattling around and nefarious shenanigans around the Emerald City, including but not limited to shopping, eating, libation testing and general happy prowling around. Woe is me - I had left my camera charger in the room when we checked out, so I don't have photos of tulips, trumpeter swans and tundra geese (the laggards of migration I'd think), or any of the rest of the week’s jaunts. What a terrific pick-me-up trip after a gruelingly grey winter.

Last two pix are of shawls I knitted for the Seesters. They loved them - the red needed ends woven in, but wait for that? Not. Now I'm home having a "happiness hangover", ready to knit, sew, plant, mow, and catch up on What-If Diaries. Can. Not. Wait. to see what all the What-If fibre artists have been up to!